Rep. Lynn Woolsey is circulating the following Dear Colleague and Sign-On letter to the Super Committee urging them to end funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the debt deal.

Urge your representatives to sign the Woolsey letter here.

Letter to Super Committee: $1.8 Trillion in Savings

August 12, 2011

Dear Colleague:

As the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also referred to as the “Super Committee,” begins its work, we must remind its members of the overwhelming costs due to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I urge you to join me in cosigning the letter below to the Co-Chairs and members of the Select Committee noting the $1.8 trillion that could be saved by ending the wars. To cosign or for additional information, please contact me or Jennifer Goedke (5-5161) on my staff.

Sincerely,

Lynn Woolsey

Member of Congress

September 9, 2011

The Honorable Patty Murray
The Honorable Jeb Hensarling

Co-Chairs
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction

The Honorable Xavier Becerra
The Honorable Dave Camp
The Honorable James E. Clyburn
The Honorable Fred Upton
The Honorable Chris Van Hollen
The Honorable Max Baucus
The Honorable Jon Kyl
The Honorable John Kerry
The Honorable Rob Portman
The Honorable Pat Toomey

Members
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction

Dear Co-Chairs and Members,

Congress and the American people have entrusted you with a great responsibility – ensuring the economic well-being of our nation. This is no simple task and will require both bold decisions and fair compromises.

We understand that you will consider many options when it comes to reaching the benchmarks set by Congress. But too often, when it has come time to reduce spending, the working poor and the middle class have been asked to bear most of the sacrifice. Fortunately, there are other alternatives.

To generate much-needed savings, we strongly urge you to examine the costs of the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. To date, the wars have cost our taxpayers at least $2.3 trillion, with an additional $884 billion in future costs for veterans and their families. This adds up to a total of at least $3.2 trillion. By ending the wars and paying for a safe, orderly, and responsible redeployment of troops from both Afghanistan and Iraq, we can go a long way toward meeting our fiscal challenges. We propose:

* Ending the overseas contingency operations emergency supplementals and on-budget appropriations starting in Fiscal Year 2013, providing $170 billion in Fiscal Year 2012 to fund redeployment, while saving more than $1.8 trillion from current law spending levels over ten years

These reductions are substantial and robust. They will put us on the road to a more prosperous and secure future while advancing our national security interests.

Exorbitant spending on failed wars that have killed thousands of Americans must not be exempt from budgetary scrutiny. Before we ask American families to pitch in more, let’s bring our troops home – and, in the process, our tax dollars home.

Sincerely,

[signatures]